How to Fix an Underperforming Website

WHAT’S AN UNDERPERFORMING WEBSITE?

You’ve had your website out there for a few years and at one time you actually had a good thing going. Your website was getting exposure from the search engines and social media and you were getting leads on a pretty consistent basis. Then the leads slowly started to become few and far between, and now its next to nothing. You check to see if your website is even out there anymore. It is, but what happened? Your website is under performing.

Your website has become stagnant. Your competitors have been busy updating their websites with new content, making posts on social media and generally providing the search engines with new information to index. The search engines recongize this and always want to provide the best experience to its users and serves the most relevant up to date information in its search results. This is a good reason to consider a website maintenance plan. Maintenance plans keep your website up to date with accurate information, current technologies and most importantly, secure. Read on to learn other reasons why your site might be under performing.

You Have a Difficult Domain Name

You should consider how your brand translates to your website properties an important part of your online strategy. When you have conversations about your business and share your website’s domain name, it’s much easier to remember your brand’s name rather than a URL with hyphens and numbers. A complicated URL may work if you have a strong SEO campaign to raise your brand’s awareness, but in terms of longevity people will not remember all those complicated characters that make up your domain. If your brand’s domain is not available, choose a domain that reflects your unique value proposition. People will remember beststeaksintexas.com or numberoneplumberchicago.com.

Your Website Has an Awkward User Interface

Another sign of a dated website is a confusing navigation structure. User design experts have identified a website’s navigation is critical to its success. If you have every single page of your website accessible from your main navigation, it can make the user’s experience overwhelming and cluttered which will potentially turn them away. Decide on 3 or 4 areas that revolve around main focus of your website and keep your main navigation links under 5 to 7 sections of your site. If you have many additional pages that belong in those areas, use sidebars to display links to those pages to keep your main navigation simple.

No Clear Direction on What to Do

A lot of businesses have what we call “brochure” sites. Websites that are basically a 4 or 5-page informational site. They feature a home, about, product/ services and a contact page. All of the same elements you would expect in a brochure, except online. If all you want your users to do is read about your products & services then contact you, these types of sites are perfect. However, if you want to grow your business and do things such as capture your visitor’s email addresses or have them complete a form to download a whitepaper, you need to give your users that direction with a call to action. These call to action items come in all forms such as buttons, links or videos to tell your users what you want them to do. You benefit from gathering data on your site visitors and your users benefit from getting something they needed or wanted.

Your Page Speed Load Time is Slow

Google has made it well known that it rewards websites that load quickly. It wants to provide the best experience for its users and will give higher rank placement for sites that are optimized for fast loading times. Websites should provide the user with all the important elements of your site within the first 8 seconds of loading. Make sure your images and videos are optimized for the web and minimize the use of javascript, CSS, and fonts.

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SimpleLogic is a web design agency in Louisville, KY. We specialize in crafting effective digital marketing strategies that generate demand, leads and sales from your website. Our goal is to simplify the digital marketing experience. If your website is not generating the results your business needs to grow, please give us a call at (502) 230-6690 or Contact Us here.